


Candles and everything

by vaguely_concerned



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-31 00:13:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8555176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaguely_concerned/pseuds/vaguely_concerned
Summary: Torren turns four and Rodney frets.





	

It was three a.m. on the night before Torren’s fourth birthday, and the only reason John wasn’t asleep yet was that Rodney had reached his bi-weekly freakout  and needed someone to tell him things would probably turn out okay before his head exploded. It had been all John could do to coax him down between the sheets and wrap his arms around him, just to keep him from vibrating off the bed with nervous energy.

“You really think this birthday thing is going to pan out? Did someone take care of the cake?” Rodney asked, his back tucked close against John’s chest as he squirmed.

“Sure,” John mumbled into the back of his neck, dragging his lips over the skin there. ”Everything’s under control.”

“It’s just that - I know we all love Teyla and would trust her with our lives but... well, she really, really can’t bake.”

“At all,” John confirmed. “Never tell her I said that.”

“And take both of our lives into my own hands? Yeah right. I guess I just... this is the first birthday Torren is realistically going to be able to remember, and... I mean, who knows what could happen and... it should be good.”

John stroked his side. “It will be. We have balloons shaped as _planes._ That’s cool. And,” he added, cutting off whatever snippy comment that would elicit, “Lorne did the baking. Should turn out okay. Candles and everything.”

Rodney gave a whine of incredulity and half turned around to look at John. “Lorne _bakes_? What on Earth would he - no, wait, actually, this makes a lot of sense.”

John grunted noncommittally, pulling him back down.

“Man of many talents, that Major Lorne,” Rodney said airily, snuggling under John’s arm again. “Painting. Pastries. Oooh, d’you think he’ll be any good at folding paper hats? Like, origami party hats? Zelenka forgot to bring them, _naturally_. He had one job...”

“You could always ask,” John said, instead of _I have stored so much of myself in this city, in these people, in you._ “I bet he’ll make you a pretty pink princess crown, McKay.”

Rodney scoffed. ”Diadem or bust.”

”Be sure to tell him, now.”

For a while Rodney was quiet, settling down little by little. Then he made a decisive sound and poked John’s shoulder.

”Hey, c’mere a second, just have to...” He turned over to cup John’s face in his hands _,_ kissing him slow and deep and sweet before placing one more peck to his cheek and tucking his face against his throat. ”...hope Torren  likes the tablet, anyway. I listened to Kanaan and modified it to be sturdy enough to survive anything short of a direct hit from an air to surface missile, which I guess is the closest thing you can come to the destructive energy of a kid that age. What did you get when you turned four?”

John made a startled sound and tried to remember. ”... my mom got me a picture book about helicopters, I think.”

”Pretty cool.”

”Uh-huh. How about you?”

”Hm? Oh, one of those tiny torture devices that’s supposed to strengthen your fingers. You know, for playing the piano better.”

Like every time Rodney dropped one of these tidbits about his childhood, John needed a moment to process that. ”...right.”

”Oh, and my mom bought me a t-shirt with  the first hundred decimals of pi on it. That one was awesome – I could memorize more of it every time I looked in a mirror.”

”Handy.”

”It was. Wore it until I was seven, then it turned into too much of a crop top. If Lorne puts fucking citrus in the cake I’ll turn off the heat in his quarters for a month,” he added darkly, with all the attention span of a man whose brain juice was spiked with near fatal doses of caffeine.

John kissed his jaw. ”And to think they said you have a vindictive streak.”

Rodney yawned,  fingers twisting into John’s t-shirt. ”I may forget, but I’ll never forgive.”

Now that Rodney was a warm, relaxed weight against him John closed his eyes and let sleep start to slide over him.

”Did you know Ronon is really good at balloon animals? He made a giraffe,” Rodney slurred, but before John could answer he was snoring quietly. John’s heart gave a small pang – he brushed his thumb over the soft hair right behind Rodney’s ear and rested his cheek against the top of his head.

**Author's Note:**

> Why yes, in my heart I know bb!Rodney did read mirrored writing/numbers, like da Vinci before him.


End file.
